Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.

Friday, January 11, 2019

Idled Federal Workers Called Back To Wildlife Refuges So People Can Hunt

Furloughed federal workers are suddenly being ordered back to wildlife refuges across the nation during the government shutdown in part so that people can hunt, according to a manager’s email.
The order comes just ahead of next week’s annual elk hunt in Oklahoma’s Wichita Mountains, one of the wildlife areas being restaffed, The Associated Press reported. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has now directed 38 wildlife refuges to order their staffers to return to work to ensure that hunters and others have access to the areas despite the partial government shutdown, according to an email obtained Wednesday by AP.
Margaret Everson, the principal deputy director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, decried lost “opportunities, including hunting” during the shutdown. “For the next 30 days, using previously appropriated funds, we will bring back a limited number of employees to resume work on high priority projects and activities that support the Service’s mission and meet the public’s desire for access to Refuge lands,” Everson said in an email.
Barbara Wainman, assistant director for external affairs at FWS, said the paychecks of 244 employees will be funded so they can return to the refuges in order to oversee scheduled hunts, continue backlogged maintenance projects and prepare for the fire season, The Hill reported...MORE

They are using "previously appropriated funds". Now what exactly is that? Money from last years budget that had not been spent and had also not reverted back to Treasury? I wonder which agencies and what amounts of "previously appropriated funds" exist across the entire federal government?